Optical response of nickel-based superalloy Inconel-718 for applications in additive manufacturing

We present a broadband infrared and optical study of the compositionally complex nickel-based superalloy Inconel-718, a common material used in additive manufacturing using the direct metal laser sintering (DMLS) technique. We find a broad, featureless spectral emissivity, which is consistent with dc transport measurements and contextualize the results against literature reports of disordered metals. We show that electronic structure calculations based on first-principles modeling can explain most of the spectral weight distribution and show that the peculiar infrared optical properties in this class of materials can present challenges in accurately reporting remote temperature sensing in DMLS.